Yet it seems as though @DatDudeBP just might be helping Phillips erase a public perception that has been askew, allowing him to open more of a window into his true personality. It has some teammates wondering whether the social networking has actually helped him play better.

“I’m just being myself,” he says, “having a good time doing it and giving back to fans supporting me all these years.”

We often find that sports personalities are kind of jerks, but we never knew it because of the layers of PR and media between them and the fans. Sometimes, though, we learn that players are actually really cool people, but that we didn’t know it for exactly the same reason.

There was a story I heard over the weekend watching a Reds games on the MLB network that changed my mind about Phillips. He asked his followers over twitter that the first person that could tweet his uniform number in high school would win a special prize. Well, two guys tweeted the correct number to him at the same time. The prize they both won was that he flew then to San Fran over the past weekend to hang out with them, both at the ball park and in his personal time. He spent the whole weekend with them, all expenses paid.

Pretty cool. And who said twitter was all that bad (except for Ozzie Guillen, of course).

Yeah, I love that Phillips does prizes. One time he asked what his favorite drink was and the winner got to take a trip to see him, I believe. I guessed water, but the correct answer was milk. It’s one of my greatest regrets in life.

Another Phillips twitter story from a game broadcast: The team had a day off and he asked what he should do that evening. Some HS kid replied that he was playing in a big game that night. Phillips showed up to watch him play and spent time with the kid and his parents.
Gotta love it.